The following video is from a person who always leaves me thinking.

In this particular instance, it comments how both China and India have far more STEM graduates than the US, or other Western countries for that matter.
I know it is anecdotal, but in my 45 years in the EE industry, what i witnessed was that in companies there would be a lonely foreign engineer, now they have become a majority.
Your thoughts?
BTW, I am retired. I am not concerned about MY job security.

 

what i witnessed was that in companies there would be a lonely foreign engineer, now they have become a majority.

D*mn affirmative action. The division I last worked at was only hiring East Indian females with a PhD when I retired. That's discrimination against every other category (male, female, Asian, Hispanic, Caucasian, experienced Master's, etc). But my experience is there has been a lack of qualified US Citizens for decades.

 

The following video is from a person who always leaves me thinking.

In this particular instance, it comments how both China and India have far more STEM graduates than the US, or other Western countries for that matter.
I know it is anecdotal, but in my 45 years in the EE industry, what i witnessed was that in companies there would be a lonely foreign engineer, now they have become a majority.
Your thoughts?
BTW, I am retired. I am not concerned about MY job security.

This is what happens when the government subsidizes useless Gender Studies degrees.

 

Oh, and don't forget:

STEM = Men (in general).

Men are bad.

Therefore,

 

I read somewhere that the American semiconductor engineers have mostly retired, and they have not been replaced.
This shortcoming would dampen the USA quest for semiconductor “independence”.

We need another Sputnik moment here in the US.

 

Counties like China and India are a lot further behind than the US in terms of basic humanity and living conditions. On just about every metric I can think of, they need more engineers and the like to solve their problems. I suppose folks can take this as a threat to our way of live (which it kind of is) but it's also about time for these regions. I think US and Canadian citizens like myself are reaping the rewards of the our nation's progress. Other places don't even have clean water to drink much less shower.

 

The problem is the US is the education system. Many/most teachers are teaching for the wrong reasons (lack of meritocracy (unions)), summers off, easy job (I suspect I'll get some pushback on this, but how hard is it to teach the same thing year after year after year?). School districts are striving for mediocrity. Mainstream the children with problems, drag them up to the middle and neglect the smart ones.

When I was in elementary school, teachers and the principal kept my small group of smart students together in grades 4-6 and put us with the "better" teachers. We were constantly challenging each other in the hall while the teacher taught the rest of the class. Talented and gifted programs weren't much of a thing back them. It took teachers who recognized and nurtured students with potential.

 

Oh, and don't forget:

STEM = Men (in general).

Men are bad.

Therefore,

View attachment 324206

I'm doing my part to help with STEM and females in STEM. My now 19yo is taking her second year finals in Physics, Math and Computer Science. I'm helping her with some x86 assembly school work in her computer architecture class.
https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~wuchang/courses/cs201/
https://www.coursicle.com/pdx/courses/CS/205/

It's not the quantity, it's the quality of the graduate(s) that will make the difference.

 

I think the lack of STEM graduates has to do with the (perceived or actual) dwindling demand for them. Every day we see more jobs deleted and reopened overseas. It seems almost irresponsible to go into field which is apparently earmarked for outsourcing. Right now the demand for STEM graduates might outpace the supply but this seems (to me, and probably to the kids choosing their majors now) like a temporary situation. For those choosing a STEM path now, is there any guarantee that those jobs will still exist (in this country) by the time they graduate? What about 10 years after that? 20 years? Everything we are doing as country right now seems like a concerted effort to step down as a superpower and replace ourselves with China. Some of the kids graduating HS now are considering global employment opportunities. We are becoming one of the countries where the best and brightest leave for greener pastures. We have to do something to turn it around. Like, I don't know, maybe stop exporting our entire economy to China.

 

I think the lack of STEM graduates has to do with the (perceived or actual) dwindling demand for them. Every day we see more jobs deleted and reopened overseas. It seems almost irresponsible to go into field which is apparently earmarked for outsourcing. Right now the supply of STEM graduates might outpace the demand but this seems (to me, and probably to the kids choosing their majors now) like a temporary situation. For those choosing a STEM path now, is there any guarantee that those jobs will still exist (in this country) by the time they graduate? What about 10 years after that? 20 years? Everything we are doing as country right now seems like a concerted effort to step down as a superpower and replace ourselves with China. Some of the kids graduating HS now are considering global employment opportunities. We are becoming one of the countries where the best and brightest leave for greener pastures. We have to do something to turn it around. Like, I don't know, maybe stop exporting our entire economy to China.

No guarantees in life but the basic engineering principles they learn will enable them to get the new jobs of the future. My daughter is also learning to speak Korean (and she does Korean MA) to expand her global employment opportunities.

China, I remember when Japan was going to rule the world on engineering, manufacturing and technology in the 80's and 90's. Only time will tell what happens to China as there is a huge effort to bring STEM back to the USA.

 

China, I remember when Japan was going to rule the world on engineering, manufacturing and technology in the 80's and 90's.

I don't remember it because I was a little too young to be cognizant of such things, so I must ask those who were: did Japan ever pose a legitimate threat to our status as a manufacturing superpower? Were we outsourcing American jobs to Japan on any meaningful scale? Was Japan's economy set on an intravenous blood transfusion from our own economy? Did Japan have 4x our population? Did Japan have almost our same GDP? I think China (or rather, our growing dependence on China) is a threat to our way of life in ways that make any past fears of Japan look like an un-funny joke.

Only time will tell what happens to China as there is a huge effort to bring STEM back to the USA

What effort? Serious question, I don't really know what you're referring to. I am curious if it is something substantive, something that addresses long term concerns (continued employment opportunities in the USA). That is to say, I hope it is not just an awareness campaign focused on smart kids, trying to convince them to join STEM programs for which there is an uncertain future.

No guarantees in life but the basic engineering principles they learn will enable them to get the new jobs of the future

Agreed, you can do definitely do worse than a STEM degree, even if you find yourself working in some other role.

No guarantees, that is true, but there things we can do, to put the odds much more in our favor. Like start taxing the hell out of Chinese goods, and any imports from anywhere else that can be made here. IMO we need to tax imports at whatever rate necessary to make them retail 10% higher than the American made equivalent. That should generate enough revenue for the government that hopefully they can lighten up on the vampirism of We The People's paychecks encourage the growth of American manufacturing. I know there are drawbacks to this kind of tactic but what do we have lose that we aren't already losing?

 

I'm doing my part to help with STEM and females in STEM.

Regardless of your efforts, STEM are male dominated fields. It's a biology thing.

Continue to convince boys (because of toxic masculinity or privilege, or whatever else) that they are unwanted in the universities and we all suffer.

 

I don't remember it because I was a little too young to be cognizant of such things, so I must ask those who were: did Japan ever pose a legitimate threat to our status as a manufacturing superpower? Were we outsourcing American jobs to Japan on any meaningful scale? Was Japan's economy set on an intravenous blood transfusion from our own economy? Did Japan have 4x our population? Did Japan have almost our same GDP? I think China (or rather, our growing dependence on China) is a threat to our way of life in ways that make any past fears of Japan look like an un-funny joke.


What effort? Serious question, I don't really know what you're referring to. I am curious if it is something substantive, something that addresses long term concerns (continued employment opportunities in the USA). That is to say, I hope it is not just an awareness campaign focused on smart kids, trying to convince them to join STEM programs for which there is an uncertain future.



Agreed, you can do definitely do worse than a STEM degree, even if you find yourself working in some other role.

No guarantees, that is true, but there things we can do, to put the odds much more in our favor. Like start taxing the hell out of Chinese goods, and any imports from anywhere else that can be made here. IMO we need to tax imports at whatever rate necessary to make them retail 10% higher than the American made equivalent. That should generate enough revenue for the government that hopefully they can lighten up on the vampirism of We The People's paychecks encourage the growth of American manufacturing. I know there are drawbacks to this kind of tactic but what do we have lose that we aren't already losing?

Japan was just going to buy America.
https://www.businessinsider.com/japans-eighties-america-buying-spree-2013-1




What effort?
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/...er-china-tariffs-some-start-aug-1-2024-05-22/
US says tariff increases on Chinese EVs, batteries and chips to start Aug. 1

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ina-on-chip-technology?embedded-checkout=true
US Urges Allies to Squeeze China Further on Chip Technology

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...s-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/
CHIPS and Science Act Will Lower Costs, Create Jobs, Strengthen Supply Chains, and Counter China

We are doing something substantive.

 

Regardless of your efforts, STEM are male dominated fields. It's a biology thing.

Continue to convince boys (because of toxic masculinity or privilege, or whatever else) that they are unwanted in the universities and we all suffer.

The biology thing, sure to a point, just don't get into a fist fight with my girl. The sort of people that excel in STEM IMO are not the ones that are affected by that horse manure social nonsense. They've been future engineers and scientists since birth and have always been on the out of social BS trends.

 

We are doing something substantive

Thanks, I wasn't aware; I have been mostly tuned out of the world for years now. This is a promising development!

 

Seems not much has changed over the years. My daughters computer architecture programming finals assignment is the game Mastermind in C and ASM. She was sort of shocked when I told her I built and programmed a version of the game long ago.
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/mixing-74-ls-hct-with-diode-logic.163109/post-1432058
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...decoders-are-used-for-what.110573/post-853854

She's using a Linux PC for her class assignment version while I built my own hardware for the programing task.

 

The following video is from a person who always leaves me thinking.

In this particular instance, it comments how both China and India have far more STEM graduates than the US, or other Western countries for that matter.
I know it is anecdotal, but in my 45 years in the EE industry, what i witnessed was that in companies there would be a lonely foreign engineer, now they have become a majority.
Your thoughts?
BTW, I am retired. I am not concerned about MY job security.

I'd say that young people aren't interested anymore. They've been raised in a materially rich society where one just clicks a button and everything happens. They spend half their life on "social" networking sites, watching mindless brief video clips and endless "influencers" like Jake Paul, Andrew Tate and the other vacuous attention seekers. If they ever actually read books I'd be surprised, putting effort into gaining knowledge is the old fashioned way of making one's way in life, it's for losers.

Years ago kids might dream of being a scientist or astronaut or inventor, today they dream of making money by posting endless drivel on Youtube and TikTok. This is the world we created for them and it's our fault in a very real sense.

 

I'd say that young people aren't interested anymore. They've been raised in a materially rich society where one just clicks a button and everything happens. They spend half their life on "social" networking sites, watching mindless brief video clips and endless "influencers" like Jake Paul, Andrew Tate and the other vacuous attention seekers. If they ever actually read books I'd be surprised, putting effort into gaining knowledge is the old fashioned way of making one's way in life, it's for losers.

Years ago kids might dream of being a scientist or astronaut or inventor, today they dream of making money by posting endless drivel on Youtube and TikTok. This is the world we created for them and it's our fault in a very real sense.

I don't think the real percentages of what young people are interested in have changed much over the years from my small sample of four kids. The 'social', sport, etc kids have always greatly outnumbered the science nerds. Today is great time to be a science/engineering nerd.

This science scare reminds me of the late 50's/early 60's Missile/Science gap when the Russians were going to take over the world. Mainly overblown but a lot of money was invested in basic science, engineering education because of those fears. So, in the long run it was a good thing and the STEM gap fears will likely be a net positive if it helps some of those kids nerd dreams become real.
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499825.pdf

 

The worst, TikTokers are paid by us, even without our approval.

Btw, when I look electronics freelance jobs there are 100 pakistans and indians applying. Then I look at their profiles almost all do a marketing, art or some theoretical stuff.
Companies offering this jobs have to be happiest in the word.

 

I don't think the real percentages of what young people are interested in have changed much over the years from my small sample of four kids. The 'social', sport, etc kids have always greatly outnumbered the science nerds. Today is great time to be a science/engineering nerd.

Well here's where the US stand these days, I don't have the data from the 1950s, be interesting to compare it: